


that one time rachel (may have) stolen a chicken

by Shadokin



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, LIS Fic Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 04:46:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17036921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadokin/pseuds/Shadokin
Summary: Chloe thinks she's joking.She's not.





	that one time rachel (may have) stolen a chicken

**Author's Note:**

> canon divergence or complicit - it works either way. written for red-demiurge over at tumblr for lis fic exchange. hope you like it!

The door is quietly opened, Rachel shushing quietly under her breath. Her jacket, swollen a bit too much at the side, answers her in a similar hushed _cluck_.

Then the door closes, and Rachel slowly pulls the young chicken from her jacket, placing her on the ground as gently as she could. The head of the chicken turns this way and that, her eye meeting Rachel before scanning around the room. Another second passes, and she beelines straight behind the couch in the living room.

Rachel smiles before hurrying down the hallway of the apartment.

“Chloe?” She says, peeking into rooms. “ _Chloe? Are you home?”_

“Why are you whispering like that?” Chloe’s voice comes from their room, and Rachel bucks straight into there, her hand going out to the doorframe and hanging off of it as she looks to Chloe swirling around on the computer chair to face her.

“I stole a chicken.” Rachel says, offering a bright smile. Chloe gives her a raised brow and an awkward chuckle.

“I thought we were trying to do a meatless dinner tonight.”

Rachel feels her face flush, scrunching her eyes at Chloe. “No! Chloe, I _stole_ a real chicken.”

There’s a silent beat as Chloe processes. Then she frowns.

“Rachel—”

“ _Cluck!”_

Chloe’s eyes widen.

“You didn’t.”

“I told you I did!”

Nervous laughter comes from Rachel’s lips. She steps aside so Chloe can pass through and follows her back to where she left the chicken.

The chicken is perched on their couch, and she freezes at the sight of them both staring.

Chloe drops her head and covers her face with both hands.

“Oh my god, Rachel…”

Hand on her hip, Rachel takes a step closer to the chicken, stretching her other hand out slowly. The chicken eyes it before jumping from her seat and scooching down the couch’s frame.

“She’s a little nervous.” Rachel admits, at least having the sense to look embarrassed. Chloe gives her a bit of a strained look that carries neither a smile nor a frown, and Rachel feels the impulse of her decision start to settle on her.

“I passed by some people who talked about… killing her.” She says. “They were carrying her in a super small cage and I saw her face and she looked _at_ me, Chloe. I don’t know, I couldn’t just let her go.”

Chloe sighs, and the chicken’s feathers are a bit ruffled from where she’s perched, eyes never leaving the pair standing by her.

“So now what, we ca—we can’t _keep_ it.” Chloe stretches her arms towards the chicken, who with a quick beat of her wings jumps from the couch and lands out of sight on the other side. They hear a more startled _“cluck!”_ before Chloe shrinks away to the kitchen off the same room.

“I mean, I don’t know anything about raising chickens. But maybe we could. Imagine all the money we’d save on eggs.” Rachels says, her voice perking back up. She walks to Chloe and wraps her arms around from behind, leaning up on her toes to rest her chin on Chloe’s shoulder.

“We live in an apartment, Rach.” She says, a softer sigh releasing when Rachel brushes her lips against Chloe’s neck.

“It’s going to be weird eating chicken in front of it.” Chloe says with resignation.

“We don’t have to eat chicken in front of her.” Rachel says, squeezing a little tighter before letting go. Chloe feels the smile grow on her face when she hears the chicken flapping its wings again. She can’t pretend the idea of Rachel just hauling ass with a chicken in her arms down the street because she just _had_ to save it doesn’t make her happy.

Rachel names the chicken Firestarter. She sits on the couch most days but flings herself off as soon as one of them moves to sit down with her. They get her chicken feed and a water dish, the latter of which she knocks over at least four times a day.

“I think she’s a buckeye breed, but I have no idea.” Rachel tells Chloe a few days in. Firestarter doesn’t come into their room at all, claiming the living room as her place to live.

“Rachel, it says chickens _can’t_ live indoors. Not like, permanently.” Chloe offers, scanning one of the tabs Rachel has up. Rachel frowns but doesn’t offer a reply.

“I’m sorry.” She says eventually, and Chloe blinks surprise and puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Because she’s messy and we’re spending money on her we need for gas and rent, and I didn’t mean to do this to us.”

They’ve been together for years now. Having a rescued chicken in their home wasn’t the biggest thing they’ve ever had to deal with. Chloe wonders how a younger Rachel and Chloe would deal with this situation. Chloe could build a coop in her backyard. It would be another reason for Rachel to come over. Then again who knows how her ex-step-father would’ve feel about that.

She could also imagine Rachel getting all the girls in the Blackwell dorms to help her hide the chicken. Max would certainly have gotten roped into it as well.

Chloe looks down to Rachel and moves until she can place her hand at Rachel’s cheek, turning her until they’re staring straight at each other. Chloe smiles at her, waiting until Rachel gives a soft smile back before leaning in and pressing a light kiss to her lips.

It’s not as electrifying like when they were in high school. It’s not as terrifying when they weren’t together but sort of together and Rachel refused to talk to her about liking girls and what that meant for either of them. Things slowed down, and feelings change.

Passion turned to trust, and trust gave them time for heal, and find a better spark.

Rachel’s eyes are stilled closed when Chloe pulls back, and she pokes Rachel softly in the cheek, earning a playful “hey!” in return.

“We’ll figure this out. If we can’t keep her then we’ll find like, one of those rescue places for farm animals.” Chloe tells her. Rachel fiddles with her hands in her lap, nipping at her lip.

“Whatever we do, I have to be honest, Chloe, I’m not sure I can look at eating chicken the same way after this.”

Chloe purses her lips. “Weren’t you a vegetarian in high school?”

“Vegan. And yeah, but that was for diet stuff. And I got tired of just eating salad after like, two months.”

Chloe snorts. “Oh god, we’re… we’re going to revisit that later, but sure, no chicken.”

There’s a flutter of wings, and then Rachel’s screaming and Chloe feels the shock up her spine and falls back to the ground.

Firestarter, in her brown ruffled feathered glory, has taken residence on Rachel’s left shoulder. Rachel, wide eyes, sinks a little in her stance.

“What… what do I do?”

Chloe snorts, and Firestarter ruffles at the sound but doesn’t move.

“I don’t know, make her get down.”

Rachel looks offended at the suggestion. Her voice takes on an aggressive edge.

“Are you kidding me, she clearly trusts me now how can I betray her like that?”

“I mean, she just took a shit on your shoulder so.”

“What?!” Rachel yells, and Firestarter pecks at her check before she waves her body and Firestarter beats her wings and scrambles off of her.

“I was kidding!” Chloe gasps out in laughter, trying to hold the worse of it back as she sees the frizzled look over Rachel. She looks around to find Firestarter on the ground not more than three feet away.

“Aw, you’re okay.” Chloe says, lowering down and easing a hand forward to the chicken. Firestarter turns her head and blinks, reaching forward and gently pecking at Chloe’s fingertips.

“I love you, Chloe, but I swear next time you joke like that you’re sleeping on the couch.”

“That’s fair.”

Firestarter clucks softly, and Chloe gives her a light scratch on the head. Rachel crouches down besides her and bumps shoulders. Chloe leans back into her.

“I love you too.”


End file.
